If there were an award in Colorado politics for the best quotation of the week, it would surely go to Rep. Robert Ramirez, a Republican from Westminster.

In explaining his opposition to a bill that would have allowed illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition, Ramirez told The Denver Post’s Tim Hoover that he “actually had people saying that because I was Latino, I should vote for it. And I told them straight up, ‘That is the most racist comment I’ve ever heard in my life.’ That’s basing what I should do on my skin color or name.”

Of course Ramirez is right. Those who demand conformity of political views within ethnic groups are expressing racist sentiments, even if they are themselves members of minority groups. They are also indulging in a brutal form of intellectual bullying meant to ostracize and intimidate the target.

Vincent Carroll is The Denver Post's editorial page editor. He has been writing commentary on politics and public policy in Colorado since 1982 and was originally with the Rocky Mountain News, where he was also editor of the editorial pages until that newspaper gave up the ghost in 2009.

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